Editor's note: In his article titled "China-Japan-India axis strategy: an all-round economic & political cooperation" published on People's Daily Online, Feng Zhaokui, a research fellow at Japan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, discussed the possibility of political, economic and security cooperation among China, Japan and India. The article, after it was published, aroused extensive discussions at home and abroad, in which different opinions were voiced. While Liu Xuecheng, the author of this article thinks that the parlance "China-Japan-India axis" contradicts the new security concept, and that bilateral cooperation among China, India and Japan is more realistic than trilateral cooperation; China should serve as "axis" instead of "center" in Asian cooperation.

"Great power axis" contradicts new security concept

In Asia, the cooperative mechanism with China's participation and support should be in line with the gist of "equality, mutual trust, mutual benefit and cooperation" formed in this region since the conclusion of the Cold War, and should embody the principle of "nonalignment, non-confrontation and not directed against any third party", and it is necessary to persist in the openness of the cooperative mechanism. The formulation of "axis strategy", no matter how it is subjectively defined, cannot but remind people of the axis in WWI and WWII as well as its nature of alliance. If the "axis strategy" is capped with "several great powers", then what it embodies will be big powers' dominance and monopoly of regional and even global affairs, and will be a manifestation of traditional power politics in international organizations and of what big powers say count.

When answering journalist's questions at the Boao Forum for Asia, President Hu Jintao explicitly pointed out that in the process of Asian cooperation, Asian countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are all equal participants and beneficiaries. What we pursue is a win-win situation. Big nations ought to contribute more and undertake bigger responsibilities. Small and medium-sized counties have always felt resentful and disappointed at the big-power club and so have been keeping away from it. To imbue cooperative organizations in the Asian region, it is imperative to give full expression to equal right of participation, equal right of decision-making and equal right of enjoying benefit, and to take win-win result as the goal.

Asian cooperation begins from sub-regional cooperation

Sub-regional cooperation in Asia is in the ascendant and full of vigor since the end of the Cold War despite the lagging of the process of Pan Asian cooperation. In Southeast Asia, ASEAN has gone through the process of expanding from 6 to 10 members, from establishing a 10-nation free trade area to the setting up of an economic community, a security community and a social-cultural community. In Northeast Asia, in order to solve the Korean nuclear issue, quadripartite talks have been enlarged to six-party talks and, within the "10+3" framework, the negotiating process of China-Japan-ROK economic cooperation and free trade zone has been pushed forward. In South Asia, the South Asian regional alliance has been set up for 20 years. The free trade zone around the Bangladesh Bay has been put into operation. In Central Asia, The Central Asia Cooperation Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization complement one another at different levels.

Regional powers have actively participated in these mechanisms and progress. In terms of ASEAN, the three big Asian countries' (China, Japan and India) relations with ASEAN are manifested as "axis", while ASEAN as the "center". If someday China participated in the process of cooperation with ASEAN, it would play the role of "axis" rather than "center". China's future role in Central Asia would be a cooperative partner of Central Asia. Of course, it can be regarded as a sensible choice to cement closer ties among various sub-regional organizations on the basis of mature regional cooperative mechanisms, and even bring about mergers on the basis of free will and mutual benefit.

Bilateral relation is the focus of China-Japan-India coordination and cooperation

In the present and future Asian cooperation and integration process, China, Japan and India shoulder historic responsibilities. They need mutual cooperation and coordination. Tough thorny problems still exist in both Sino-Japanese and Sino-Indian relations. The three countries need to dispel doubts, enhance trust and avoid negative competition and even confrontation through dialogs. In terms of the status quo and nature of the three-nation bilateral relations, there exist different essential problems in these three pairs of bilateral relations, the three countries show different concerns when dealing with various sub-regional organizations.

Therefore, a more realistic plan for the present stage is that China, Japan and India conduct bilateral official or unofficial dialogs and negotiations on outstanding problems existing in bilateral relations and important issues arising in the process of cooperation with sub-regions to promote the healthy development of bilateral relations, so as to reduce divergence, enhance mutual trust and reach common understanding.

The above article was written by Liu Xuecheng, a researcher with the China Institute of International Studies, and translated by People's Daily Online